HELP!!!
8 messages in this thread
Hello Everybody….
I have a chance to pick up a new hard drive (185 Megs) for free if
I c firgure out what kind of controller it uses… It is an International
Memories Incor. Hard drive. There is a hard drive cable coming out of it
that LOOKS like an MFM or an RLL controller, but it attaches to a
connection with about 100 or so pinouts…. Any help would be appriciated
as it will go to increase the size of my BBS.
Jamie
Jamie:
If it's for free — GRAB IT NO MATTER WHAT!
I can't help you, 'cause I'm not a hard drive guru, but, if I were you, I'd
get it in my hot little hands before it got away. If you can't figure out
a way to use it, you haven't lost anything. The worst thing would be to
finally find out that you could use it, one day after it went to someone
else.
I would suggest you directly ask Don Curtis and Kevin Darling this
question, BTW, as they both seem to know a lot about HDs.
Ray Lewis
The only problem is that I can only have it if I can figure out how to
interfacit. He has 2 of them and wants one for himself.
Jamie,
Well, let's start by finding out exactly how many pins it has on the
cable(s).
SCSI will have 50, on one cable.
ESDI and ST506 will have two cables, 34 and 20 pins.
IDE will have 40 pins on one cable.
It's possible that it's a completely different beast than any of the above.
-larry
Jamie,
What kind of machine was it used on? Does the drive cable end with
something like a card that would plug into a card slot? Are you sure of
the 100 wires in the cable…could it be 50 wires?
Don
It was used on a mainframe of unknown origin. As for the cable…
Standard MFM/RLL cable. It looks like it plugged into a controller of some
kind. No card on the end of it tho…. As for the number of pins… I'll
count them tonight… but it sure doesn't look like a SCSI (50 pins).
Anybody know how many pinouts an ESDI drive uses?
Also… Anybody with an address or phone number to International
Memories Inc. Please post it here…. I'm desperate!!! I want that hard
drive REAL BAD!!!
ESDI has the same pin/cable configuration as ST506.
-larry
Jamie,
MFM or RLL drives (or ESDI for that fact) use two cables, one a 34
wire cable and the other a 20 wire cable. SCSI drives use a 50 wire cable
(although it can be converted to a 25 wire cable). SMD drives use 60 and
20 wire cables.
I suspect its a SMD drive if it was used on a mainframe (I forget
what SMD stands for)…but I know that Distributed Process Technology makes
an SMD <-> SCSI interface board…but no idea on the cost.
I've got a list of drive manufacturers and most of their phone
numbers, it's got IMI on it…but it's one of the few with no phone number
for them and it only lists their ST-506 type drives (all small capacity).
Don